Wall Street Journal ‘vehemently denies’ allegations of espionage against its reporter Evan Gershkovich
The Wall Street Journal “vehemently denies” allegations of espionage against its reporter, Evan Gershkovich, who has been arrested by Russia’s federal security service (FSB), the newspaper said in a statement.
The statement reads:
The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich.
We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family.
Key events
Moscow court orders Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to be held in pre-trial detention until 29 May
A Moscow court has formally arrested the Wall Street Journal reporter, Evan Gershkovich, in relation to espionage allegations, according to Russian law enforcement agencies.
Gershkovich told the court that he was not guilty of espionage, state-run Tass news agency is reporting.
The court has ordered Gershkovich should be held in pre-trial custody for nearly two months until 29 May, according to a court document.
A lawyer representing Gershkovich was not allowed to attend the hearing, according to Tass.
“They told me they already have an assigned lawyer,” the lawyer said, according to CNN’s Natasha Bertrand.
The lawyer representing Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was not allowed to attend the Moscow hearing, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
“They told me they already have an assigned lawyer,” the lawyer, Daniil Berman, said. via @pavlovauliana
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) March 30, 2023
Asked how he would address those countries – many of them in the global south – that have chosen not to align themselves with either Ukraine or Russia, Kuleba says the war is physically taking place in Europe but its repercussions are felt all over the world.
People all across the world, in Asia, Africa and Latin America have all felt the impact of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, “be it with food security or energy and food prices”, he says.
Russia is pursuing a “cynical” policy of arguing that they defend the voices of the global south but “simultaneously put the issue of food security at higher risk by using the [Black Sea] grain initiative as a leverage against Ukraine”, he says.
He says Ukraine has to speak to those countries and identify what the reasons are for their arguments, and to take every opportunity to reach out to them and get a better understanding of how to help them resolve their problems.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmtryo Kuleba, is speaking at a Chatham House event titled “Russia’s aggression and a crisis for multilateralism”, where he begins by criticising the fact that Russia will take over chairing the UN security council on 1 April.
Russia’s upcoming UN security council presidency is “the worst joke ever for April fool’s Day”, he says, and a “stark reminder that something is wrong with the way international security architecture is functioning”.
Moscow has “systematically violated all fundamental rules of international security” and will attempt to change the balance of the council during its presidency, he says.
Kuleba says he expects other UN security council members to “corner” Russia and not allow it to “abuse” the council’s rules and push its own narratives about the war it started in Ukraine.
You can watch the event live here:
Russian authorities request formal arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter accused of espionage – state media
Russia’s FSB security service (FSB) have requested the formal arrest of Evan Gershkovich, a US reporter from the Wall Street Journal, detained on suspicion of espionage, Russian state media are reporting.
The Wall Street Journal has vehemently denied allegations of espionage against Gershkovich, who the FSB said was detained during a reporting trip to the Urals city of Ekaterinburg.
The FSB said Gershkovich, a well-respected journalist who has lived in Moscow for six years, “was collecting classified information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex”.
Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, has said it was too early to talk about a possible prisoner swap involving Gershkovich, state-run Ria news agency reported.
Ryabkov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying that such exchanges had previously taken place for those already convicted, and that it was necessary to wait to see how the story with Gershkovich developed.
As the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford points out, Gershkovich’s arrest may also be intended to scare the foreign press.
Some are speculating that @evangershkovich was arrested because Russia wants a prisoner swap
But remember @freepaulwhelan was arrested over 4 yrs ago.He’s still in jail
It’s just as likely Russia wants to terrify the foreign press – after silencing the independent Russian media
— Sarah Rainsford (@sarahrainsford) March 30, 2023
At noon GMT today (1pm BST), there will be an event hosted by Chatham House called “Russia’s aggression and a crisis for multilateralism” which will feature Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba with a debrief after by a panel of experts.
We will have a live stream of the event on this blog – you may need to refresh the page in order for the play button to appear. You can find out more details here.
Finland’s intelligence agency (SUPO) has said that Russia’s intelligence operations in the country have been “squeezed” in the past year because of expulsions of Russian intelligence officers and visa refusals.
The Russian intelligence station in Finland shrank to about half of its former size last year, AP reports, citing the SUPO director, Antti Pelttari.
The falling number of Russian intelligence officers and restrictions on travel across the border amid Russia’s war in Ukraine have significantly undermined operating conditions for Russian spies in Finland, SUPO said.
Operations under diplomatic cover have traditionally been the main instrument of Russian intelligence abroad, it said, adding that Moscow was attempting to use cyber espionage to make up for the shortfall in human intelligence.
The agency earlier said that Finland’s future membership in the Nato western alliance will make it a more interesting target for Russian intelligence and influencing operations.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov has said Moscow will continue to give the US advance notice about its missile tests despite suspending participation in the New Start nuclear arms treaty, reversing a statement he made just yesterday.
Ryabkov on Wednesday said Moscow had stopped all information exchanges with Washington about its nuclear activities, including missile test launches, under the 2011 agreement.
But the senior diplomat said today that Russia intends to stick by its pledge last month to keep notifying the US about missile tests in line with a 1988 US-Soviet agreement.
The 2010 New Start treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between the US and Russia, limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads each side can deploy. The US and Russia hold nearly 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads between them.
Vladimir Putin announced last month that Russia was suspending participation in the treaty, accusing Washington of trying to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia in Ukraine.
The White House on Tuesday said the US had told Russia it would cease exchanging some data on its nuclear forces after Moscow’s refusal to do so.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has said the arrest of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich by Russia’s FSB security service on espionage charges was “a matter for the FSB”, but that he understood Gershkovich had been “caught red-handed”.
From my colleague Shaun Walker:
Peskov now says WSJ’s @evangershkovich was “caught red-handed”. The speed and certainty which this is progressing suggests it was ordered from the top, rather than snowballing local case.
Looks a lot like hostage taking to increase Russia’s “exchange pool” for prisoner swaps.
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) March 30, 2023
Last week in Slovenia was told high-level negotiations underway on an exchange for two deep-cover Russian illegals arrested there. But that they had stalled for unclear reasons. Well, now Russia has another American to trade.
Awful.
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) March 30, 2023
Russia has not published any evidence to support its allegations against Gershkovich, who the FSB claimed “was collecting classified information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex”. The Wall Street Journal has vehemently denied the allegation.
The southern city of Kherson was liberated from Russian occupation in November 2022 by Ukrainian forces, sparking ecstatic scenes in the main square.
But with Russian troops retreating just over the Dnipro River, joy has quickly turned to nightmare, with the city suffering daily bombardment by mortars, missiles and even tank shells. Simply surviving each day has become a matter of luck and many civilians have fled.
The Guardian’s Luke Harding and Christopher Cherry speak to remaining residents to find out what life is like among the awful booms of artillery fire, and why they have chosen to stay.
Wall Street Journal ‘vehemently denies’ allegations of espionage against its reporter Evan Gershkovich
The Wall Street Journal “vehemently denies” allegations of espionage against its reporter, Evan Gershkovich, who has been arrested by Russia’s federal security service (FSB), the newspaper said in a statement.
The statement reads:
The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich.
We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family.
Summary of the day so far …
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Russia’s top security agency says a reporter for the Wall Street Journal has been arrested on espionage charges. The Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday that Evan Gershkovich was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Ekaterinburg while allegedly trying to obtain classified information. The security service alleged that Gershkovich “was collecting classified information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex.”
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Russian forces have had some success in the eastern frontline city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian military officials said on Wednesday evening, adding that their fighters were still holding on in a battle that has lasted several months. The US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War’s regular update appears to support this, saying, “geolocated footage published on March 28 and 29 indicates that Russian forces advanced in southern and southwestern Bakhmut.”
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Alexei Moskalyov, a Russian man who was sentenced to two years in prison for discrediting the Russian armed forces, and whose daughter was taken into care, has been detained after fleeing house arrest, human rights activist and lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov said on Thursday. It was earlier reported that Moskalyov was arrested in Minsk in Belarus, having fled his house arrest.
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The UK Ministry of Defence reports, citing Russian media, that authorities are preparing to launch a major recruitment campaign aimed at signing up 400,000 new troops to fight in Ukraine.
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Ukrainian volunteers who have been evacuating civilians from the frontlines of the war with Russia say some parents have been hiding their children in basements to prevent them from being taken. While parents have given different reasons, most volunteers have attributed the phenomenon to a combination of poverty and the psychological condition of the families, who have been living under bombing for months.
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Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday that Moscow was still talking to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the idea of a safety zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that has been controlled by Russian forces since March 2022.
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Lawmakers from the pro-Russia, far-right Freedom Party walked out of the lower house of Austria’s parliament on Thursday during a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, protesting that it violated Austria’s neutrality. Austria says its neutrality prevents it from military involvement in the conflict and while it supports Ukraine politically it cannot send the country weapons in its fight against the Russian invasion. The Freedom Party (FPÖ) had warned days before that it would hold some form of protest against the address.
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Four bankers who helped a close friend of Vladimir Putin move millions of francs through Swiss bank accounts have been convicted of lacking diligence in financial transactions. The four were found guilty on Thursday of helping Sergey Roldugin, a concert cellist who has been dubbed “Putin’s wallet” by the Swiss government.
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China said its military was willing to work together with the Russian military to strengthen strategic communication and coordination.
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Dymtro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, has criticised the fact that Russia will take over chairing the UN security council on 1 April, describing it as a “bad joke”.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has posted to her official Telegram account about the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in Ekaterinburg on espionage charges.
Without specifying any evidence against Gershkovich, she posted:
What an employee of the American edition of the Wall Street Journal was doing in Ekaterinburg has nothing to do with journalism. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the status of a ‘foreign correspondent’, a journalistic visa and accreditation are used by foreigners in our country to cover up activities that are not journalism. This is not the first well-known westerner to be ‘grabbed by the hand’.
Von der Leyen: China’s attitude to Ukraine war will be ‘a determining factor for EU-China relations’
China must play a part in pressing for a “just peace” in Ukraine and its role in the conflict will be vital in shaping relations with the European Union, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.
China, as a permanent member of the UN security council, had a responsibility to play a constructive role in advancing a peace based on the territorial integrity of Ukraine, with the withdrawal of invading Russian forces.
“Any peace plan which would in effect consolidate Russian annexations is simply not a viable plan. We have to be frank on this point,” Reuters reports Von der Leyen said in a speech in Brussels on the eve of a trip to Beijing.
“How China continues to interact with Putin’s war will be a determining factor for EU-China relations going forward.”
The Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday Moscow was still talking to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the idea of a safety zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been controlled by Russian forces in Ukraine since March 2022, Russian news agencies reported.
Reuters cites RIA quoting him as saying that the idea was “evolving” and Interfax quoting Ryabkov as saying Moscow was in “constant contact” with the IAEA chief, Rafael Grossi.
Far-right Austrian MPs walk out of Zelenskiy address to parliament
Lawmakers from the pro-Russia, far-right Freedom party walked out of the lower house of Austria’s parliament on Thursday during a speech by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, protesting that it violated Austria’s neutrality.
Reuters reports Zelenskiy addressed the chamber via video link, thanking Austria for its humanitarian aid and help with projects such as clearing landmines. Austria says its neutrality prevents it from military involvement in the conflict and while it supports Ukraine politically it cannot send the country weapons in its fight against the Russian invasion.
The Freedom party (FPÖ), however, had warned days before that it would hold some form of protest against the address. Its lawmakers attended the start of the speech and then left.
“It is sad that the FPO is the only party in parliament that takes our ever-lasting neutrality seriously, thereby also standing up for peace,” the FPO leader, Herbert Kickl, had said in a statement on Tuesday.
Lawmakers who walked out of the chamber left small placards on their desks featuring the party logo and either “space for neutrality” or “space for peace”.
Of the five parties in parliament, the FPO has the third-biggest number of seats in the lower house.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports on developments in Donetsk. It writes on its official Telegram channel:
At night, the Russian army launched a rocket attack on Druzhkivka, where it damaged a house, as well as on the Dobropillya community, where two houses were damaged, reported the head of the Donetsk administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko. Also, as a result of shelling with cluster munitions and artillery of the Kurakhove community, houses and electrical networks were damaged.
Four bankers who helped Putin’s friend set up Swiss bank account convicted
Four bankers who helped a close friend of Vladimir Putin move millions of francs through Swiss bank accounts have been convicted of lacking diligence in financial transactions.
The four were found guilty on Thursday of helping Sergey Roldugin, a concert cellist who has been dubbed “Putin’s wallet” by the Swiss government.
The executives – three Russians and one Swiss – helped Roldugin, who is godfather to Putin’s eldest daughter Maria, deposit millions of francs in Swiss bank accounts between 2014 and 2016.
Reuters reports the men, who cannot be identified under Swiss reporting restrictions, were found guilty at a hearing at Zurich district court and were given suspended sentences of seven months each.
Russian security services detain Wall Street Journal journalist on espionage charges
Russia’s top security agency says a reporter for the Wall Street Journal has been arrested on espionage charges.
Associated Press report the Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday that Evan Gershkovich was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Ekaterinburg while allegedly trying to obtain classified information.
The security service alleged that Gershkovich “was collecting classified information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex”.
The FSB didn’t say when the arrest took place. Gershkovich could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of espionage.
China said its military was willing to work together with the Russian military to strengthen strategic communication and coordination, the Chinese defence ministry said on Thursday.
The two countries would work together to implement global security initiatives, Reuters reports Tan Kefei, a spokesperson at the Chinese defence ministry, said at a regular press conference.
Tan said the two countries would deepen military trust and jointly safeguard international fairness and justice. They will also further organise joint maritime, air patrols and joint exercises, Tan said.
